LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Friday 25th April 2008

Of course children are poor, Polly Toynbee

In this morning's Guardian Polly Toynbee observed: in the tightest budget this March poor children were the one cause Darling paid out to generously.But when Martin Amis wrote in his memoirs Experience: I was very short of money when I was a baby. I slept in a drawer and had my baths in an outdoor sink. My nappies bore triangular singe marks where they had been dried on the fireguard. It was tough.it was a joke. Of course he was poor. All babies are poor. And if his early years were more straitened than most - which is unlikely, given ...

Senator George Mitchell

A final evening in the splendour of the Civic Halls' banqueting suite to hear the Olaf Plame Memorial Peace Lecture. As I have observed before Leeds City Council doesn't really do "Salon" as an institution so this annual event is a welcome throw back to more enlightened times. Senator Mitchell will be a visiting Professor at the Leeds Met University Praxis Centre who co sponsors the event. A former Senate Majority Leader and chair of the Northern Ireland All Party talks this topic was whether peace processes work. The evening had three parts. Some introductory "after dinner style" anecdotes and ...

Bye Humph

:(

We're sorry, there's no longer a clue

Jazz legend Lyttelton dies at 86 Humphrey Lyttelton 1921 - 2008Humph died peacefully with his family and friends around him on April 25th at 7.00pm following surgery.There are no words I can say. RIP Humph.

Humphrey Lyttleton has died

Samantha will be inconsolable and the obituaries will follow. In the mean time, there is a news report on the Telegraph site and a profile here. Later. There is an obituary on the BBC site.

China talks to Dalai Lama-not quiet

Beijing is willing to talk with Dalai aides. It's amazing what China will do under International Pressure (sarcastic). It isn't good enough at all, it's not even half what needs to be done in China. Full talks of Tibet need to be made, action must be taken about Human Rights, Journalists should be able to travel through China. But of course the International Community will applaud China at this poor step. Sarkozy in the face of nationalist Chinese supporters, is happy. The US embassy in Beijing calls it a "positive development" and even the EU commissioner is "very happy". It's ...

Zimbabwe police in raids

Not only did they raid MDC HQ in Harare but also independent poll monitors. The Police seized computers and documents from the Zimbabwean Election Support Network. Members of the MDC sheltering in the headquarters were taken away. Violence has been happening across the country. Zanu-PF militias are taking out their revenge, and trying to make sure that Mugabe will stay in power. Mugabe and his party Zanu-PF are truly in a war against their people.

A near-death experience, and the kindness of strangers

My leafleting excursions over the years have had me face to face with various excitements - wild dogs mainly, with the occasional even-wilder local resident not overly keen on St Mary’s Focus. I have grappled with gates so complicated that their design owed less to B&Q and more to the CERN Institute. And I have taken on every type of weather imaginable. I have fallen over, accidentally kicked cats, got stuck in hedges and had a memorable encounter with a goose. Once I ended up consulting health professionals after an untoward incident with a (now deceased) dog. But tonight I ...

Kenyan campaigning based on bribes

In a country where bribery payments make up a third of household income (read '50 facts that should change the World' by Jessica Williams, very interesting book, read it after the local elections obviously) it's no wonder this would have happened. Out of the $90m raised by parties, 40% was spent on bribing people to vote for them, this was on both sides. Corruption is a huge issue, the Kenyans elected Kibaki in his first term on a campaign against corruption, and nearly (or half) elected Odinga on a campaign against corruption. How do you think the Kenyans will feel. ...

Africa resists Chinese arms to Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe being landlocked, means the Chinese boat loaded with arms first needs somewhere to dock. Countries across Southern Africa have been refusing to let the ship dock. (at first trade unions in Durban refused to let it dock). Angola is allowing it to dock, but won't let them unload and go to Zimbabwe. That is quite a big thing. Angola has a government that would usually be friends with Mugabe. African countries joining together to stop Mugabe is a big thing and there are signs of it happening.

Cameron’s Losing It

If it wasn't for the fact that Gordon Brown and the Labour Party are making such a hash of everything at the moment; from responding to the banking crisis, to the budget and the abolition of the 10p t...

Lord Darzi's Healthcare for London Report - London's Councils prepare response

Went to the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea's impressive Town Hall this morning for the 7th meeting of the London-wide Joint Overview & Scrutiny Health Committee, of which I am vice- chair. Councillors from across all London boroughs came together last year to begin scrutiny on the now infamous Lord Darzi's Healthcare for London Report. Its been a hugely ambitious, but a very successful piece of work. Many of us were doubtful to begin with as to how councillors from all political parties, representing a population of over seven million Londoners, who speak over 300 languages, living in 33 ...

Heather Mills' dad is a good egg

Click here

Freedman books Leeds United's place in the play-offs

Leeds United's made their first visit to Huise Park in search of the three points that will ensure a place in the League 1 play-offs. There is no place in the starting line-up for last Saturday's goal scorers David Prutton and Andy Hughes. Both sit on the bench, whilst injured striker Jermaine Beckford has failed to recover in time. Yeovil's biggest ever crowd at Huise Park watched United make the best possible start when a goalmouth scramble in the 3rd minute ended with Dougie Freedman left-footed into the top-right of the goal from six yards, 1-0. The Glovers, low in ...

Harman endorses Lib Dems as second choice

I've just returned from a meeting of the Oxford University Labour Club, where Harriet Harman was speaking to students. The South London MP was elected deputy leader of her party last year in front of a surprised and dismayed conference hall, but whatever people think about Harman, she's a decent public speaker. She had a good rapport with the 40-strong audience, and although I couldn't find much to agree with in her talk, she at least managed to say it all without sending me to sleep, which is a start. She spoke initially about immigration policy, but her main aim ...

Thanks Mr Brown, just got my payslip!

Last months tax �49.65 This months tax �65.60 This is my main income individually and WOW does it hurt! At least my self employed work will not give me that pain until next year! I just hope people voting next week will look closely at their payslips!

House Points: Vince Cable and Jeremy Browne

My column from today's Liberal Democrat News. Fairy tales Vince Cable was right, of course, and the Labour backbenchers were wrong. Little Red Riding Hood was eaten by the wolf. True, a hunter comes along to cut her from the beast's stomach afterwards, but there is no doubt she was wolfed down. And that misunderstanding is typical of Labour's travails these days: they have no narrative. Jeremy Browne put it well in his speech on the second reading of the Finance Bill on Monday: Many people, including those on the Labour Benches, when they heard this year's Budget, will have ...

Just like Communism, the Free Market is a great idea "in principle"

There are many people who feel that the free market is the cure all for all ills. For health care, education, defence, indeed for any sphere of public and private life there are many that believe simply and without question that the free market can do it all, and for less money. The problem is though, just like Communism, which in principle itself is great, the free market can only deliver the things its supporters say if it is truly free. The problem is though that it isn't. The free market works on the basis of anyone with a product ...

In praise of BBC Look East

I have, in the past, been very critical of the standard of journalism coming from the BBC East offices in Norwich, with BBC Look East, the regional 6.30 news programme seemingly reporting on the inane and odd, taking press releases as gospel truth and failing to do any real investigative journalism. So it was a really pleasant surprise to see the excellent piece on BBC Look East this evening which raises real concerns about the terrible security flaws at Norwich International Airport. One of my very first blog posts two years ago was in response to security issues at Norwich ...

Matt O'Connor and the English Democrats split

Long time readers of this blog will be aware that Quaequam Blog! is a great friend of the English Nationalist movement (and indeed nationalism in general). So it brings me great sadness to have to report to you that a schism has emerged between the English Democrats and their candidate for London Mayor, Matt “fathers4justice” O’Connor: The problems O’Connor discovered were that there was no party machine in London as promised, no advertising budget as promised, and they were economical with the facts about whether we’d be funded by backers. His recent party election broadcast which he organised also had ...

SNP on the fuel crisis - shades of Labour on the 10p tax rate

Today's Daily Telegraph sums up the concerns about the SNP Government's handling of the fuel crisis - to quote : "Alex Salmond was accused of being out of touch with the fuel crisis facing Scotland yesterday after he claimed that the country could cope with a strike at its only refinery." Click on the headline above to view the full article. At this week's First Minister's Questions, leader of the Liberal Democrats in Scotland, Nicol Stephen MSP, sought to seek assurances from the First Minister that the Government was taking all appropriate steps to counter panic buying and profiteering on ...

You mean you actually came here to go on holiday?

Airport passengers look set to be guinea pigs for new unmanned clearance gates which will scan their face and compare the image to the biometric data already stored in their passports. Long queues of hot and bothered foul-mouthed sweaty passengers appear in my mind, with people so infuriated at the delays their faces may differ somewhat from their passport image... The report in the Guardian is pessimistic about the technology: "Phil Booth of the No2Id Campaign said: "Someone is extremely optimistic. The technology is just not there. The last time I spoke to anyone in the facial recognition field they ...

Bridge delays as problems found

The Bridge at the bottom of Fielding road ahs been closed for 15 weeks now when the original contract was for 13 weeks. Major corrosion has been found in metal work under the bridge and buried in the concrete that has just been exposed. It is a matter of fact that I and other told them that is what they would find when a repair was first proposed and that is why we pressed for a new...

Museums at Night Weekend with Wallace and Gromit

I thought that you might find the item below of interest particularly for the younger ones I mean the Adults who are young at heart. On Saturday 17 May Bath & North East Somerset's Fashion Museum at the Assembly Rooms is opening its doors to celebrate the Museums at Night Weekend with an exclusive and atmospheric viewing of Nick Park's Oscar® winning animation The Wrong...

Muswell Hill Library update

Well - finally local residents are being invited in to look at the proposed scheme for Muswell Hill Library. The open evening is Wednesday 14 May at the library, 7pm - 8.30pm. We are being invited to comment on the schemes being proposed by the architect. At least, thanks the my Liberal Democrat councillor colleague Gail Engert (Muswell Hill ward), the ridiculous consultation period offered by Haringey Council of just two weeks has now, after her persistence, been extended to a month. Still not long enough - but at least better than was the case. Residents will be able to ...

Demography is destiny: or the failure of pander politics

BHO and HRC are not leading any debate. They are not exchanging ideas or arguing for for the Nation's direction. Neither appears to have any narrative other than themselves. The result? Crap pander politics and contrasting demographic voter blocks for each one. This is rubbish and the worst form of democracy in action. This is what happens when you unite personality politics with focus group policy formulation. Thoroughly depressing. Read Sean Collins' article on the contrasting demographic groups supporting either candidate, and why it won't change. For other good demographic analysis, check out RCP's horse race blog.

Conservative nomination papers in Swansea: police make arrest

More news on the Swansea nominations paper story - the police have made an arrest: TORY ARRESTED IN FRAUD ROW The man at the centre of an election fraud row has been arrested.Tory Norman Whitlock has been accused of forging signatures on the nomination forms of Uplands Conservative candidate Simon Bright.

55 years ago today...

…Watson and Crick published their paper on A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid. It can be found on the Nature website for any of you that wish to read it. For those of you in Cambridge, may I suggest you go and have a drink in The Eagle tonight to celebrate them!

on the London mayoral election - tactical voting

I have heard a lot of people say they are not voting for Brian Paddick because if they do Boris Johnson will get over 50% of the vote and win simply based on the 1st preferences, so they are voting for Ken to prevent this happening (see graph). If Boris is going to get 50% of the vote in the first round, he will get 50% in the first round regardless of who you give your first preference to, here's why. Even if everyone who intend to for one of the other candidates decided to believe this OMGwemustkeepborisoutsovoteken waffle and ...

Delicious LiveJournal Links for 4-25-2008

Sky One to resurrect Blake's 7? | The Register It'll either be great or awful. But I do want to know who'll play Servalan. (tags: TV Blake's+7) Masturbation may prevent prostate cancer - Yahoo! News See, it is good for you: Studies on animals have shown that carcinogens like 3-methylchloranthrene can be harbored in the prostate. Frequent ejaculation encourages the cancer-inducing fluids to \"flush out.\" (tags: sex research science masturbation) davegodfrey: Dial \"S\" for Steampunk Lunatic is modding his PC. Looks quite cool though (tags: computers modifications steampunk) Brian Paddick: Hope can conquer fear | The Guardian I keep telling ...

Vote for your favourite first! (and then Ken)

If you are a budding psephologist click another link. Slightly sad to utter the bracketed bit of this post's title, but its true if you want to ELIMINATE BORIS! (humble apologies if you don't) I'm responding to what I've heard from many people: they feel they have to vote Ken 1st to get Boris out. Its not true, although you do need to put Ken as 2nd preference if not 1st. This election uses a supplementary voting system where the candidate with over 50% of the vote wins. You can win in the first round by getting more than 50% ...

Mounting a comeback

There is a great interview with Ferdinand Mount in today's Guardian. I love the recollection in his memoirs of securing a Sunday night interview with then prime minister Harold Wilson, conducted in near darkness because of a blown fuse. He adds: "The atmosphere was rendered more sinister still by the fact that the prime minister was wearing a large black eyepatch..." Brilliant.

Politalks Week 11: Smith and Brown

The new edition of Politalks, your weekly satirical news roundup, is here. This week we discuss Labour’s obsession with controlling every aspect of our lives, alongside a less-than-healthy obsession with Jacqui Smith: Feel free to share and share alike, and for those who are interested, here’s the transcript: Jacqui Smith and her knee-covering breasts were out in [...]

Cameron has fewer MPs than Michael Foot

Last night, a link from Alex Wilcock reminded me to look up a speech by Jeremy Browne in which he hammered both the Labour party and the Conservatives, largely about the 10p tax rate. I wrote about it for Lib Dem Voice here - giving some edited highlights and a link to the full speech in Hansard. But one jibe stuck with me and this afternoon I’ve been checking the figures: If the Conservatives cannot stand the relative heat of being a smaller Opposition than Michael Foot was able to muster, they are obviously not quite the Government in waiting, ...

Nepotism Chart

Here's the one political bar chart nobody wanted to be top of, or even close to being in a two horse race. It shows a breakdown of the percentages of MPs by each party that employ a member of their family on their parliamentary staff. So how do the 106 on the list shape up. Now the list is open and transparent it makes for interesting reading. Despite being the largest party as the graph

10p fallout

This week started with Jackie Ashley's suggestion that a Labour rebellion could lead to Gordon Brown's resignation. We end it with a slew of articles wondering if the U-turn will result in the same thing - but on a more drawn out time scale..As it happens, even the most hostile commentators don't suggest the effect of doing a u-turn will be as imminently disastrous as Ashley was suggesting. But its progressive commentators who are most interesting.Polly Toynbee in The Guardian gets to grips with the detail ('Stop tinkering, Gordon. Be bold, and show whose side you are really on') - ...

Further pot holes reported to Hants CC today

Please find enclosed two further 'shockers' on the Smannell Road. I would say that one was reported 6 weeks ago a temporary repair made but as you can see by the picture it has grown after the recent bad weather. The Little London picture is 40 metres South of Little London outside the property called Ottershaw The pothole picture was reported 6 weeks ago and is 200 metres south of the Smannell Church on the Smannell/Andover Road just before one gets to the two houses. This hole has been filled and patched before but has grown in the bad weather. ...

Maladministration - Con Controlled Forest Heath Guilty!

It is very rare to have the Local Government Ombudsman to give a verdict of maladministration on a council. Forest Heath has been the subject of this finding. The Conservative group at last night’s meeting seemed to have great difficulty in accepting the ruling of the ombudsman. Several suggested delay, the leader said with a heavy heart etc etc. The ‘Independents’ were all over the place and wanted to argue with the Ombudsmans conclusion. I strongly believe the Ombudsman is there to protect the public and to make sure that Councillors and the Council always act with the utmost integrity. ...

Election Results: Thursday 24th April 2008

Dover DC, Little Stour and Ashstone Con 1109 (66.0; -1.9), LD Bryan Curtis 459 (27.3; +5.4), Lab 113 (6.7; -3.5). Majority 650. Turnout 31.2%. Con hold. (Percentage change since May 2007). Hinckley and Bosworth BC, Hinckley Castle LD Bronwyn Witherford 802 (57.0; -10.0), BNP 264 (18.8; +18.8), Con 226 (16.1; -8.7), Lab 116 (8.2; 0.0). Majority 538. Turnout 29.6%. LD hold. (Percentage change

Stadia Tour 9: New Douglas Park

Well with the football season reaching an end (for Livingston fans at least) with only one game remaining of our season this Saturday, I thought I'd better break off from serious posting to get down to completing my tour around this season's Irn Bru Scottish First Division stadia and what better climax for that tour than the home of newly promoted champions Hamilton Academical at New Douglas Park

Energy Matters

The mainstream media have been remarkably slow in understanding just how serious the Grangemouth strike could become and until today it has been treating the story simply as one of queues at filling stations. It's not. The Oil Drum Blog has been reporting for several days that closing the refinery could close the Forties pipeline and this is now being confirmed by the BBC. This will cost the UK around 700,000 bpd lost oil production and 70 million cubic meters per day of gas which is about 25% of our consumption. Further, because the network of pipelines and refineries ...

Why I've Voted for Ken

For several years now, I’ve had a permanent postal vote, as that enables me to spend election day more usefully rather than traipsing to my local polling station. So I have already voted in the London Mayoral and GLA elections. In the former, an odd system is used, where voters get first and second preferences [...]

World Malaria Day - the Experts Speak

The day today is World Malaria Day, brought to us by those clever people at the World Health Organization. Thus, on the bright side, there is at least a little more media coverage on the disastrous effects of malaria than usual. Malaria, as our for-now-Prime Minister knows, still kills more than a million people a year, in spite of being preventable. Every thirty seconds a child dies from malaria. In 2002 it was estimated that over half a billion people were infected. One presumes the picture is gotten. So why is this happening? A sleepy Julian H was this morning ...

Outriders

I have just spent the morning delivering leaflets in a semi-rural area of Swansea. Whilst in full flow I was stopped by one resident who informed me that the BNP had been there the day before. Apparently, they arrived amongst the small group of houses in two cars and with a motorcycle outrider. They drove from house to house and a woman leapt out to deliver a leaflet at each. In the meantime the motorcyclist and the drivers of both cars kept an eye out for any trouble. My informant was appalled. He felt their methods were intimidatory. One thing ...

Bruce Willis playing Murray Walker - you couldn't make it up

Click here

Warning: Viewers May Find Images Disturbing

CLINTOBAMA This terrifies me.

Graham's blog Friday 25 April 2008

I enjoyed this week a rare occasion to take up the cudgels on behalf of Gibraltar, which was added to my SW England constituency just before the 2004 European election. Two Spanish Partido Popular (Conservative) MEPs had tabled an Oral Question on the sinking of the ship the New Flame off Gibraltar last August and were trying to use it to accuse Gibraltar of almost every ill afflicting their country. As a Group leader I generally enjoy the privilege of speaking only in the major debates, at civilised hours; but on Monday I found myself in the Chamber from 1115 ...

Pennsylvania win makes Clinton victory LESS likely

Political Insider have done the maths on delegates, and found that, after the Pennsylvania win for Hillary Clinton, she is actually less likely to win the Democratic nomination than before it: ...before the Pennsylvania, Sen. Hillary Clinton needed to get at least 63% of the vote in the remaining states to have a chance to win more delegates than Sen. Barack Obama. Clinton now needs 296 of the

How we fail to help abused women

I blogged previously about the Amnesty / Southall Black Sisters report into the plight of refugee women and illegal immigrants who are victims of domestic violence but who are trapped in abusive situations because benefits rules prevent them running away - a classic and tragic case of bureaucratic rules gone wrong. Well - this week Southall Black Sisters held a protest at Parliament: Hundreds of women protested outside Parliament today to bring attention to the immigration law that provides "no safety net to vulnerable women". Southall Black Sisters, human rights groups and other organisations from around the country began the ...

Reclaiming Donnington Road

{Skip_11_donnington_road_april_2008_} Since I reported the ongoing problem of a skip full of junk on Donnington Road a few weeks ago, RBC have contacted me to say that officers this week visited the site and instructed the builders responsible to clean up their act sharpish. Thankfully some of the dumped items have now been removed, but we will be monitoring the area closely to ensure that this skip and any associated rubbish it attracts does not outstay its welcome.

Dangerous road fixed in less than 24 hours by Councillor Hughes

At 10.00 pm on Tuesday of this week the Chair of the Smannell Parish Council reported a dangerous pothole on the A343 junction with Green Lane, the lane that leads to Little London and Smannell. The pothole was lethal. By 1030 pm Councillor Robin Hughes had been out to site and reported the hole, by tea time yesterday, Wednesday the pot hole had been filled, all be it "patch and mend" We Lib Dems have noticed a number of patch and mend repairs to roads in the Smannell/Enham area, which frankly is not good enough, we will be raising this ...

The Bergheims of Belsize Court

A brief trip into Daunt Books yielded the latest contribution to local history - Finding the Bergheims of Belsize Court by Mary Shenai. It's a great romping read of the discovery of a family and a house - now all gone from the landscape of Belsize. Essentially this is the story of the author's journey in finding out about this family - Mary Shenai lives locally and was given a album of photographs and sought to find put the story behind the people and the places. I found myself enjoying the booklet, and it has lots of little observations and ...

Full Council last night

Last night was a special meeting of Full Council to approve the constitution which will be used by the Council in the event of us electing a Mayor. And it was as thrilling a ride as that introduction suggests. Neck bottle of Lucozade, and proceed… At present the Council is run by a Leader and Cabinet. The Leader is the leader of the political party running the Council, in our case the Bury Conservatives. Later in the year the people of Bury will be asked if they want to get rid of this way of running things, and instead have ...

Reviewing parking on Alexandra Road

Regular readers of this Blog will know we have been grappling with the issue of problem parking, or to quote a local resident "inconsiderate parking", for some time. The Council's decision to make it illegal to park on junctions around Alexandra Road was a good first step, but more clearly needs to be done in what is a very busy area for cars.The priority has got to be making the road safe for pedestrians and other road users, and pleasant for local residents. If you need it, there's more background on our campaign to reduce dangerous parking in this area ...

Seabraes Update

An on-going area of complaint has been graffiti and other vandalism at Seabraes - right - (read an earlier story about this by clicking on the headline above) , and I have recently received more complaints from constituents about the graffiti here. Firstly, with regard to the 'mini bandstand' in the gardens area at the top of Seabraes, Dundee Contract Services has agreed to my request to have the graffiti on it removed. With regard to graffiti across the SET area of Seabraes as a whole, I have had positive feedback from SET, whose representative has said, "I have put ...

Special Council Meeting

Last night I attended a special meeting of Bury Council. The meeting was to agree the “question” to be put to voters in the Mayoral Referendum on 3 July 2008. Unlike normal meetings of the full Council, which tend to go on till 10pm, the meeting was very short with only one agenda item. Councillors took note tf the responses from members of the public on what things would be like if we had an elected mayor in Bury. We agreed: - that the Mayor should work with a “cabinet” of Councillors, including councillors from opposition parties - that the ...

Constance Tries to Calm Storm

The letters page of the West Lothian Courier in recent has been red hot with insults and retorts over just where blame should be shunted regarding St. John's hospital. Some of the worse had come from Labour councillors and Labour MSP Mary Mulligan. Mary had been a junior Health Minister up at Holyrood at the time that acute emergency services were downgraded at St John's. She subsequently

A parliamentary gem

Don’t miss the remarks of our own Lib Dem MP for Taunton, Jeremy Browne, who spoke at great and caustic length in the discussion on the finance bill, heaping scorn on Labour and Conservative members alike. The link to online Hansard is here - he begins towards the bottom of the page and you have [...]

Cycle Theft is out of control!

{Ggbike} In Reading as a whole there are very few dedicated cycle lanes and the ones we have don't connect. As a result cyclists must use the already crowed roads. If we are to convince people to ditch their cars and take up cycling we need a connected system which is easy to use. Cllr Daisy Benson has been campaigning on this issue for some time now, see this earlier blog enty: click here, and has been raising this issue on the Safer Reading Campaign (crime committee) for some time now. I'm originally from Peterborough, and there we had excellent ...

Quite frankly I don't believe it

I am always somewhat sceptical about a survey, which poll's such a small number of people then goes on to make sweeping statements based on its findings. This survey is a good case in point.. Whilst I'm sure a problem does exist, I seriously doubt it has reached the proportions suggested by this survey. It's relatively easy to phrase your questions in a certain way to achieve the outcome you want. Isn't it?...

HMRC Tax Credits - the saga of the cover-up continues

One reason used for HMRC to ask people to pay their tax credits back is the so called "no receipt" of the annual return. What it means is that if the annual return gets lost in the post then people have to repay all the tax credits and there is no way of changing this. I did win for one of my constituents mainly by threatening judicial review. However, I have been researching this and there

LibDems table 10p rate amendment; Clegg targets Labour MPs

Nick Clegg has written to Labour MPs urging them not to be bribed by the Government's 'last minute smoke and mirror promises' and instead vote for the Liberal Democrat amendment against the plan to double the 10p rate of tax. The unspecified measures announced yesterday by the Government won't come into effect until November at the earliest, and will not help all of the millions of people affected by the original change. The Lib Dem amendment comes after Labour MP Frank Field withdrew his. [BBC] "I strongly hope that, for the benefit of many thousands of your constituents, you will ...

First Minister's Answers

Last night I promised another blogger a considered response on Nicol Stephen's performance at Stephen's performance in First Minister's Questions yesterday. So I watched the full replay on BBC Parliament last night to see what all the brouhaha was about. Before Nicol even got to ask his question is most be noted that like a true economist Alex Salmond laid out a few assumptions. "Assuming

Organic kohlrabi in store

Low Leases Organic Farm, just down the road near Leeming Bar, was established some ten years ago by Rob McGregor, who with his wife, Elaine, left London for the green fields of North Yorkshire, determined to establish an organic farm. I came across them when they were just starting out, but, having tried to sell fresh organic fruit and veg in the shop about 15 years ago when there was no

London Mayoral Election

ATTENTION LONDONERS! I've seen a lot of stuff around these last few weeks along the lines of well, I'd like to vote for Brian/Sian/a.n.other candidate, but that would be pointless because it's a two horse race so I have to vote for Ken/Boris to make sure Boris/Ken doesn't get in. Voting Liberal/Green/Loony/Whatever is always a wasted vote anyway... This is complete bollocks! You have TWO VOTES. This means you can, should, and ought to vote for the candidate that you actually WANT to win (yes, even if this is the BNP tosser) for your first vote, and THEN vote for ...

Lord Bonkers on Matthew Taylor, Nick Clegg and GQ

From Liberator 325. Monday Well, well, well. So the story has finally come out. I suppose it was inevitable. The name "Percy Harris" will mean little to my younger readers, but he was quite the fellow in his day. Percy was elected in the Liberal interest at a by-election at Market Harborough during the Great War and was a frequent guest at the Hall in those dark days. The soundest of fellows, he stood by Asquith in 1918 and was thus denied the "coupon" by Lloyd George and his Tory allies, ensuring his defeat. He soon re-emerged as a Liberal ...

Boris would be a disaster

I have just watched the BBC’s Question Time special for the London Mayoral election. Everybody mocks Boris Johnson as stupid and a buffoon. After tonight’s performance that reputation should grow considerably. If Boris wins the election then I think that he will be a disaster for London and the UK as a whole. London is [...]

Day 2665: Zimbabwean Anniversary

Friday: It was Zimbabwean Independence Day, and to celebrate his Independence from REALITY Mr President Mugabe gave a great big ANNIVERSARY speech. It was the 20th Anniversary... yes it was 20 days since the Presidential Election wot he lost. And still no sign of him saying what the results were. Like we don't know.

Day 2663: Mr Frown versus The Pope

Wednesday: To Amercialand to watch the World Heavyweight contest to see who can be the STEAMINGEST hypocrite. In the BROWN corner: the Right Honourable Mr Frown, Prime Monster of Great Britain, justly proud of his record on tackling POVERTY by increasing TAX on the lowest paid workers. But in the WASHES WHITER corner: His Holiness Mr Pope Benelin* née Rottweiler, Bishop of Rome, Head of the Inquisition and Junior Nazi League Come Dancing Champion 1944, SPECTACULARLY claiming that his lot are responsible for human rights. In 1215 AD, Mr Pope Innocent III took just ten weeks to annul MAGNA CARTA. ...

Day 2662: Biofuel Bad

Tuesday: (All that typing about Master Gideon left my nose VERY tired last week, so there are GAPS in my diary again that I've got to fill in.) A new law came in saying that all petrol for cars must now include something called BIOFUELS. What this means is... you know how OIL and COAL got made by lots and lots of plants getting buried under the Earth and millions and millions of years of SQUISHING going on to squeeze them into OIL? Well, the idea is to cut out the GEOLOGICAL middle-man and make oil straight from the plants. ...

Friday 25th April 2008

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